Metro area, Washington
Walla Walla, WA
25,920 people work in this area, at mean pay of $66,060 a year (BLS, May 2025), in every industry. What follows is how much of their working time the best AI models could finish, when, and in which jobs and tasks. Estimates.
of the paid hours. Estimate.
a year: 8.4 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 33%
- 19%
- 48%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 16% is within reach in tasks not yet seen there.
Across the US: 22% within reach now and 37% by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five.
Share of the paid hours within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this area's paid hours were within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 18%. Today's estimate: 21%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Where the hours are
Jobs by hours within reach now. The 40 largest jobs hold 60% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office Clerks, General | 440 | 54% | 496,954 | $48K |
| Registered Nurses | 810 | 28% | 468,375 | $117K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 250 | 78% | 403,520 | $51K |
| Retail Salespersons | 640 | 19% | 258,253 | $37K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 290 | 43% | 256,964 | $52K |
| Receptionists and Information Clerks | 170 | 59% | 207,917 | $40K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 150 | 64% | 200,928 | $49K |
| Cashiers | 490 | 19% | 188,552 | $36K |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 420 | 19% | 165,984 | $39K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers | 230 | 35% | 165,527 | $76K |
| Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks | 150 | 53% | 165,048 | $56K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers | 210 | 32% | 139,340 | $77K |
People: BLS counts for this area, May 2025. Pay here: the median paid for the job in this area, else its mean, else the national median. 151 smaller jobs (7,810 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 76% of the area's people; the rest are in BLS "all other" groups with no task list, or in counts BLS does not publish.
The tasks with the most hours within reach by the end of 2028
Across the whole area, on the chosen pace and reliability.
- Perform administrative or managerial functions, such as taking responsibility for a unit's staff, budget, planning, or long-range goals.Registered Nurses135,713 hours60% of the task within reach
- Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General110,208 hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records.Registered Nurses92,900 hours100% of the task within reach
- Operate computers programmed with accounting software to record, store, and analyze information.Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks81,302 hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.Retail Salespersons77,549 hours50% of the task within reach
- Keep periodic balance sheets of amounts and numbers of transactions.Cashiers72,047 hours100% of the task within reach
- Develop and implement records management program for filing, protection, and retrieval of records, and assure compliance with program.Management Analysts68,223 hours76% of the task within reach
- Plan and design transportation or hydraulic systems or structures, using computer-assisted design or drawing tools.Civil Engineers65,535 hours79% of the task within reach
- Coordinate conferences, meetings, or special events, such as luncheons or graduation ceremonies.Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive63,514 hours53% of the task within reach
- Maintain and update filing, inventory, mailing, and database systems, either manually or using a computer.Office Clerks, General61,399 hours80% of the task within reach
Other areas in Washington
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA2,086,210 people22% now, 41% by 2028
- Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA255,820 people23% now, 35% by 2028
- Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA130,300 people23% now, 42% by 2028
- Western Washington nonmetropolitan area129,880 people21% now, 30% by 2028
- Kennewick-Richland, WA129,490 people20% now, 32% by 2028
- Eastern Washington nonmetropolitan area108,720 people20% now, 31% by 2028
- Yakima, WA97,010 people20% now, 28% by 2028
- Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA93,740 people21% now, 35% by 2028
How it is built: BLS counts the people in each job in this area; each job's tasks and their lengths give its share within reach at a date; the area's share is those shares weighted by people. Value is pay times 1.43 for benefits and payroll costs. Seen in Claude use splits today's share by whether Anthropic saw people bring each task to Claude in 2025; other AI tools are not counted. How it works